On politics in the Golden State

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez has devised a plan to use money from the Assembly's operating budget and some tobacco-tax revenue to backfill cuts to child-care programs made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I think the worst thing we could do would be to ask people living on the margin who need this child care to wait until January to figure out how to take care of their families," Pérez said.